Council President Brenda Jones
One thing is clear: Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley doesn't have much faith in the new Detroit City Council, or the old ones for that matter.
He goes on to list the number of crazy or crooked council members of the past.
He writes about the late council member Jack Kelley in the early 1980s when he "interrupted a resolution ceremony for two Japanese businessmen. Kelley, deep in his cups, produced a Louisville Slugger and banged it ferociously on the table while ranting about the purchase of the baseball bat’s manufacturer by a Japanese company. 'You’re buying up America!' Kelley screamed at the terrified businessmen with every crack of the bat."
He writes about Kenny Cockrel Sr. and Clyde Cleveland getting into a wrestling match and of Councilwoman Kay Everett, being under suspicion of taking $150,000 from a contractor at time of her death.
He thought things would improve four years ago with a new council, but he writes that seemed to crumble when Council President Charles Pugh up and vanished in the midst of a scandal involving a teenage boy he was mentoring.
He writes:
This week, a largely new council signaled a return to form. It elected as its president the longtime obstructionist Brenda Jones, and as its second-in-command George Cushingberry, a slick political operator who has had his snout in the public trough for nearly 40 years.
Cushingberry responded to a Detroit News editorial harshly criticizing the elections by advising the newspaper to “Go to hell.” We can take it. What we can’t take is the real likelihood that Cushingberry and crew will continue the Detroit City Council tradition of taking the city to hell.
-- Allan Lengel
